The subject invention generally relates to online retail services and, more particularly, relates to a system and method for facilitating the purchase of products that are determined to be useful in the performance of a task, such as ingredients, appliances, and/or utensils that might be used in connection with a cooking recipe.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,376,591 (“the '591 patent), issued on May 20, 2008 to Owens, describes a method and system for interactively shopping for groceries, especially on an Internet web site, where the user may create a shopping list, shop for items from the list at a selected grocery store, arrange for pick up or delivery of the selected items and payment, or download a created shopping list to a PDA (possibly for printing) for use in the store. Users are required to register and provide specific demographic information (which is useful to manufacturers and stores) to be eligible to receive the benefits of use of the web site, such as menu creation, coupon downloads, menu planning, and recipe input. Shopping lists may be created from a single input screen using standard language text, and products added to the shopping list may be automatically suggested to the user based on a best regular price or retailer's specials. Recipes entered by the user may also be altered to meet numbers of servings or dietary requirements with any changes being stored for future use.
While the '591 patent, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, generally describes a system in which a user may create personal recipes and/or modify any recipe to suit their needs, the subject system and method provides a much needed improvement thereto.